when you buy a HD, the manuf. defines 1 KB as 10^3, 1 MB as 10^6, etc. Now, computers work in bytes, so one MB would be 2^20, or 1,048,578 bytes, and one GB would be 2^30 or 1,073,741,824 Bytes. HD companies use this deceptive method to make it seem like you're getting a better deal than you really are

Originally posted by Blake But then again, it is WD - never had good experiences with them, but to each his own. Personally, I'm a Maxtor guy - never had one problem with them.

I totally agree. But the extremely low price of the WDs lately has caused me to buy three of them. Of course, I backup too.

The three year warranty helps a bit, and you're only paying $100-200 for the drives now. I have rejected the current line of Seagate IDEs because they only have 1 year warranties. It seems to say something about the manufacturer's confidence.

I believe the Maxtors also have three years and I would prefer them if the price was right. But we're not talking the old days of SCSI drives and prices. Drives are almost consumables now. At these low prices it's just about as economical to throw a second drive in as it is to backup on tape. I actually have a slower 80GB Maxtor backing up a fast 80GB WD now.

Originally posted by X I totally agree. But the extremely low price of the WDs lately has caused me to buy three of them. Of course, I backup too.

The three year warranty helps a bit, and you're only paying $100-200 for the drives now. I have rejected the current line of Seagate IDEs because they only have 1 year warranties. It seems to say something about the manufacturer's confidence.

I believe the Maxtors also have three years and I would prefer them if the price was right. But we're not talking the old days of SCSI drives and prices. Drives are almost consumables now. At these low prices it's just about as economical to throw a second drive in as it is to backup on tape. I actually have a slower 80GB Maxtor backing up a fast 80GB WD now.

One of the main reasons I chose my new motherboard is for the RAID capabilities. Prices are so low with hard drives, I'm going to take my 30 GB main drive and mirror it via RAID with another 30 Gig, when I get enough cash, I might end up mirroring my file storage drive, which is 80 gigs.

Most people think I'm crazy for having over 120 gigs on my system, but it's just so cheap now, and with all the huge files all over the net, how can you not have that many??

Originally posted by Blake One of the main reasons I chose my new motherboard is for the RAID capabilities. Prices are so low with hard drives, I'm going to take my 30 GB main drive and mirror it via RAID with another 30 Gig, when I get enough cash, I might end up mirroring my file storage drive, which is 80 gigs.

Most people think I'm crazy for having over 120 gigs on my system, but it's just so cheap now, and with all the huge files all over the net, how can you not have that many??

Just remember mirroring RAID does not protect against the more bonehead moves. Or viruses, etc.

I just called COMPAQ to make sure this HD would work and the lady told me most likely it won't

She said the systems "biost" (sp?) may not recognize such a large hard drive. I told her I added 256RAM and it doesn't seem that is going to help. She pretty much said the PC is outdated and just not going to recognize the entire HD. She said it would be a waste. But, I explained to her that I will be buying my own pc one day and transferring the HD over.

So, what should I do? How can I make sure that I can at least use some of the 120GB? .....Anyway to determine how much of this 120GB I would be able to use on this Presario 7360?

Even if I can only use 40GB that is fine with me. Please let me know what I should do.

I feel if I get a 40GB like the lady recommends I am only cheating myself......

Thanks!

She also told me to do this update here:

SP17455.EXE - 1030K - May 16, 2001

TITLE: Presario Specific Models System ROM Update #1 for Models Sold in 2000

She is right that some BIOS don't recognize some ofthe larger drives, depending on how old the board is. You might be able to upgrade the BIOS off compaq's website, but I don't really know if that would make a difference. They might not even have BIOS updates if the computer is real old.
I really don't know how much of the drive computer will recognize.

my advice: I would go ahead and get it, especially if you are getting a new computer soon. That is an awesome price.

Originally posted by LX98Civic I just called COMPAQ to make sure this HD would work and the lady told me most likely it won't

She said the systems "biost" (sp?) may not recognize such a large hard drive. I told her I added 256RAM and it doesn't seem that is going to help. She pretty much said the PC is outdated and just not going to recognize the entire HD. She said it would be a waste. But, I explained to her that I will be buying my own pc one day and transferring the HD over.

So, what should I do? How can I make sure that I can at least use some of the 120GB? .....Anyway to determine how much of this 120GB I would be able to use on this Presario 7360?

Even if I can only use 40GB that is fine with me. Please let me know what I should do.

I feel if I get a 40GB like the lady recommends I am only cheating myself......

Even if true, you should be able to set up in multiple partitions, ie C: D: E: in whatever size chunks are necessary. In Windows 95 and prior, you could only have 2 GB partitions, and drives larger were set up as 2, 3, etc. partitions, each with a drive letter, but they weren't really physically separate drives.

If the BIOS can't see (or handle) that big a drive you can't partition it to be seen. It's a matter of how many heads and cylinders type stuff, not really the size. You can't access areas that the BIOS won't recognize.

Originally posted by X If the BIOS can't see (or handle) that big a drive you can't partition it to be seen. It's a matter of how many heads and cylinders type stuff, not really the size. You can't access areas that the BIOS won't recognize.

Thank-you all for the info!!

It is true that my PC will be able to use this HD, just not really a way to tell how much of the 120GB, right? The lady was saying 40GB would be fine for this pc. That would be fine for me at this point since I don't see me grabbing that many mp3's & pics before I get the new pc. Who knows maybe Santa will bring me a new pc this Dec

It's a very good deal. But if you can only use 40GB of it now you have to consider a few things. By the time you can use all of the drive prices will be lower again. Maybe way lower. So you could look at getting a 40GB now for about $60 and another drive later.

But chances are you can use the drive after installing their utility. Here's a FAQ from their website:

How do I install a large drive into an older computer that doesn't see the full capacity?

Question
How do I install a large hard drive into an older computer that doesn't see the full capacity?

Answer
There are several possibilities to consider if your system BIOS will not support a large capacity drive like this.

Note: If the system is only recognizing 528MB, 2.1GB, 8.4GB, 32GB, 64GB of the hard drive, or something significantly less then the actual capacity of the hard drive, your system bios may not support the hard drive capacity. Below you will find some possible solutions to your limitation issues.

1. Check with the system or motherboard manufacturer to see if they have a BIOS upgrade available for your system.

2. You can purchase a PCI EIDE controller card. The controller card has two benefits. It will have its own BIOS to support the drive, and it will allow you to use the higher transfer rates that the drive is capable of. Western Digital's Online Store has a complete selection of PCI EIDE controller cards that allow you to see the full capacity of your drive and use the higher transfer rates.

3. A third option is to use our Data Lifeguard Tools disk to set up the drive. The Data Lifeguard Tools disk will install an overlay on the drive to support its full capacity.

Note: An overlay is a program that installs on the boot sector of your hard drive that will allow you to get the full size of the hard drive when your system bios will not handle larger capacity hard drives.

Originally posted by X 2. You can purchase a PCI EIDE controller card. The controller card has two benefits. It will have its own BIOS to support the drive, and it will allow you to use the higher transfer rates that the drive is capable of. Western Digital's Online Store has a complete selection of PCI EIDE controller cards that allow you to see the full capacity of your drive and use the higher transfer rates.

3. A third option is to use our Data Lifeguard Tools disk to set up the drive. The Data Lifeguard Tools disk will install an overlay on the drive to support its full capacity.

Note: An overlay is a program that installs on the boot sector of your hard drive that will allow you to get the full size of the hard drive when your system bios will not handle larger capacity hard drives. [/i]

Damn X, you're A~W~E~S~O~M~E

I wonder how much option 3 would cost Is it just something I can DL from Western's site I see it says program that is why I ask. I bet option 2 would be more